Christmas is coming so Sainsbury's bring out their Christmas themed hot chocolate powders. The Orange was really nice. This Mint, is also good, though a little less so than the Orange. The mint flavour is not quite perky enough, and the chocolate fades into the background somewhat. Milk and sugar somewhat dominate, with the menthol from the mint making itself felt long before any chocolate gets a look in. Nice enough. Be fun to try a blend of the Orange and Mint.
Date: Nov 2021 Score: 5
Vegan recipe in that there is no intended milk or milk products in the jar, however there is a warning on the jar that the product was made in a factory with milk products, so some milk traces may be present.
It certainly is smooth - some may say oily (we do). There is some chocolate flavour here, but not much. It sort of tastes like corn mush or well coked veg. There is a sort of not-quite-right flavour to this. It's drinkable, but not entirely enjoyable - at times it tastes like warm vegetable oil (like Mazda) mixed with a little cooking chocolate.
The main ingredients are: Sugar, Maltodextrin, Dried Glucose Syrup, Fat Reduced Cocoa Powder (10%), Coconut Oil, Soya Protein.
We won't be drinking this on its own again, but shall use it in blends to see if that works.
Date: Oct 2021 Score: 2
Cocoa, sugar, and 8% Lindt chocolate. It's smooth and pleasant, but lacks depth and is a little sweet. Quite drinkable, but at the top end for price, even for a brand name hot chocolate. £4.00 for 300g from Tesco (£1.34 per 100g). There are some more expensive, but Twinings is £1.15 per 100g and Cadburys is 80p; while Tesco own brand is 40p.
Meh. Not one we'll be buying again at that price, unless they bump up the chocolate content and give it more oomph.
Date: Oct 2021 Score: 4
Oxo is a beef tea, along with Bovril. It was developed in the late 1800s. The cube is crumbled into a mug and hot water poured on. There are, thankfully, veggie versions now. Bovril was made into a veggie version, but after some protests the liquidised remains of young cows was restored to the product. A form of beef tea can also be made from Marmite - which has always been veggie - but that doesn't work as good.
I can remember my first Oxo beef tea. I was a child, probably about eight years old, and I'd come home from playing quite cold and wet because we'd been caught in the rain. My mother made a mug of Oxo, and put in pieces of bread. I quite liked the bread soaked in Oxo, but it was the drink that really excited me, and I can remember wanting to drink more of the juice, and regretting that my mother had put so much bread in the mug!
This modern veggie Oxo is delightful. Just salty enough. Very savoury and satisfying.
Date: Oct 2021 Score: 7
Bought from Tesco where it is normally £3 for 300g, but is reduced to £2 if you have a Clubcard (which I do). There are little lumps of powder floating on the surface which I couldn't stir away, so points deducted for that - probably due to the bulking agents they add to give the "Rich & Creamy" texture. Yes, it is smooth, but it's also surprisingly bland. There is some chocolate flavour in here, but it is a characterless chocolate which is rather dwarfed by the sugar and the "creaminess".
This sort of sits between cocoa/hot chocolate and instant hot chocolate/drinking chocolate - it's not pure cocoa because it has sugar and thickeners and junk in it, but it's not instant hot chocolate because it doesn't have milk powder in it. If you're going to make your hot chocolate drink with milk, then use a cocoa powder, and add your own sugar. It's not brain science, and you end up with a drink that is tailored to your own taste, and way, way cheaper, and doesn't contain garbage chemicals.
Though it has the Costa brand name on it, the chocolate is made by AllAboutFood Ltd, who do similar things for other brand names. Well, looking at their website, it appears they don't make the chocolate - they just do the branding. It appears that they commission the products from other companies, as their team are creatives rather than manufacturers. They are sort of middle men. Ho hum. So, I wonder who does make this? Possibly Aimia Foods, who specialise in this sort of thing.
In short: drinkable, but bland and full of chemicals. And too expensive due to paying too many companies who are not actually involved in making the chocolate.
Date: Sept 2021 Score: 4
Soft, milky, gently sweet, creamy. Some mild chocolate flavour. Easy drinking. More for kids than adults, but quite likeable if not expecting a proper hot chocolate.
Date: Aug 2021 Score: 3 1/2
Sweet, easy drinking, some chocolate flavour, a little wishy-washy. It's a pleasant drink, but lacks character and depth of flavour, and much of the pleasure is carried by the sugar rather than the chocolate. This is an instant chocolate but without the milk powder, so you have to add your own milk. If you're doing that, you might as well have a proper hot chocolate and add your own preferred level and type of sweetness.
We tried blending this with an instant hot chocolate, but the result of that was to weaken the instant hot chocolate, even though made with all milk, so the result was not good. When blended with proper hot chocolate there is greater depth of flavour and body, but a lot of hot chocolate has to be added.
Current cost is around £4 for 350g, which, given that you have to add your own milk, and the finished product is a bit wimpy, doesn't represent good value for money.
But it's each to their own, and some may like its sweet, easy drinking nature.
Website: Twinings Swiss Chocolate Drink
Ingredients: Sugar, fat-reduced cocoa powder (18%), glucose, chocolate (7%) (sugar, cocoa mass, fat-reduced cocoa powder, flavouring vanillin), mineral dicalcium phosphate, emulsifier (sunflower lecithin), flavouring vanillin, salt.
Date: July 2021 Score: 4
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| Twinings |
Drunk by itself Sainsbury's Cocoa is a little crude and harsh. It is drinkable and moderately interesting, but, for us, benefits from adding something, such as sugar, honey, cream, or a spoon or two of instant chocolate. It's not one we'd be inclined to buy again.
Date: June 2021 Score: 4
Classic French chocolate with the brand image of the dancing foal (the company name, Poulain, is French for foal). The company was founded by Victor-Auguste Poulain in 1893, who had been making chocolate products since 1848. Poulain drinking chocolate has been a favourite breakfast drink in France since the 1940s.
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| Ingredients |
It's a milky sweet chocolate drink. Not hugely chocolatey, but certainly sweet and easy drinking. We like it.
Date: May 2021 Score: 7
I made this with 2/3rds hot water and 1/3rd cold milk. Perfect. A smooth chocolatey drink which does taste of Galaxy. Nice one. I'd go for this again.
Date: April 2021 Score: 6
The creamy froth, chocolate sprinkles, and Nice biscuit do not come with the packet! The mug on the right is what the product looks like when made up as directed.
This is a cheap, convenient, and tasty little instant chocolate drink. The little sachets are good to take when staying a night or two in hotels which give you a kettle, but only tea or coffee sachets. You can also use them at home, though I prefer the flexibility, the economy, and the more environmentally friendly larger containers. Not sure, though, if Mokate do the standard containers - all Mokate products I've had in the past have been in sachet form.
This is not a top quality product, but it is tasty and quite drinkable.
Date: April 2021 Score: 4
Horlicks is awesome. Sweet, malty, milky goodness.
Horlicks is a malted milk drink. Malted milk was devised by James Horlicks in the 1860s in England as an infant food supplement, but had no success marketing, so moved to America to join his brother where they developed the idea, and in 1873 formed the Horlicks company. Though intended as infant formula, it found success as a nutritional food for explorers, and was taken to the South Pole, where a range of mountains is called Horlicks Mountains. The formula was used to create Malted Milk biscuits, launched malt (or soda) shops, and became hugely popular in the UK as an evening drink at home and in hospital.
Date: April 2021 Score: 9
Ovaltine is a milky barley malt drink that is traditionally drunk in the evening. It looks good, tastes good, and by golly it does you good (to borrow a Mackeson advertising slogan). It was promoted with images of health and goodness. I worked for a while at the Ovaltine factory in Kings Langley opposite the Ovaltine dairy farm. These days it's a housing estate, though they have retained the art deco frontage.
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| The Ovaltine factory and farms in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire |
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| As it is today, converted into flats, with just the facade remaining. |
Though I had always assumed it was a a British product (and indeed it has been owned by a British firm Associated British Foods (ABF) since 2002) it was developed and owned by a Swiss firm, and since the closure of the Kings Langley factory in 2002 when it was taken over by ABF production of European Ovaltine has returned to Switzerland. There are different versions of Ovaltine (or Ovomaltine as it was originally named, and is still called in many parts of the world); originally it contained egg, and it still does in many parts of the world, but not in the UK. Some versions contain cocoa, some don't, and some contain extra cocoa. This is a UK version which contains more cocoa than the standard British Ovaltine. ABF also own Primark and Twinning's.
This can be made hot or cold. It can be made with water or milk, or a mix of both. And, of course, it can be blended with other cocoa or hot chocolate products (we like to play around and experiment!).
We like this. A lot. Not a huge chocolate flavour, so not really for hot chocolate enthusiasts. It has a wonderful malt flavour. I like malt. The balance between the malt and the cocoa, for me, is nicely judged so the flavours complement each other, with no one dominating.
Make with milk or part milk for an extra smooth creamy indulgent experience.
Nice one!
Date: Lockdown Feb 2021 Score: 8
The Cadbury's hot chocolate is flexible and stands up well. It is milky and easy drinking. The Sainsbury's Cocoa, even with a spoon of sugar, tasted a little bitter, and a little powdery. We liked it the least. I was impressed by the Tesco Drinking Chocolate, and that, for me, was the clear winner. Good chocolate flavour. Good body. It tasted smooth, chocolatey and indulgent. Not too sweet - you can add your own sugar to personal taste. I like that.
In order:
1st - Tesco Indulgent Drinking Chocolate
2nd - Cadbury
3rd - Sainsbury's Cocoa
Date: Feb 2021
All three of these are cocoa powders. Van Houten's is the original Dutch process cocoa. Sainsbury's Cocoa is made in Amsterdam. It could well be made by Van Houten, though it looks darker. Cadbury's is the only one to have added ingredients, and is around 50% sugar.
Cadbury's tastes like milk chocolate. Which is odd because there is no milk powder in the ingredients. All three were made the same way, with the same amount of fresh milk. Yet, it does taste like liquid milk chocolate. It is the least complicated of the three. The one that is most familiar and comforting. It suprised me how well it stands up to the others. You can spot the difference straight away, but though it is different, that's not in itself a weakness - just a difference. Like the difference between Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Lennon is without a doubt the more interesting, but also the more demanding and challenging. On the whole Lennon is more rewarding, worthwhile, and significant. But sometimes a McCartney song will have the greater appeal. The Dutch cocoa powders are John Lennon, while Cadbury's is Paul McCartney. Van Houten's has extra flavours and complexities which make it the more interesting. Sainsbury's cocoa is more robust. It's more straightforwardly chocolatey, edging to the dark chocolate, but not too dark. It perhaps lacks some of the subtle complexities and flavours of the Van Houten.
They each have their appeals, and I have learned a new respect for the Cadbury, which does taste quite smooth and velvety next to the rougher Dutch powders (and what I found worked really well, was a blend of Van Houten and Cadbury to combine the smoothness of the Cadbury's with the more interesting flavours of the Van Houten).
In order:
1st: Van Houten
2nd; Sansbury's
3rd: Cadbury's
This is an old tin of Van Houten's that we bought in Amsterdam last time we were there. It still tastes great. This is just chocolate powder. No sugar. No milk. No other ingredients. This is Dutch chocolate. Van Houten invented a process for removing the bitterness from chocolate, but retaining the flavour, by adding an alkaline salt to the cocoa mass - it's called the Dutch process. His father had developed a press that removed a large amount of cocoa butter, producing a cake of cocoa solids that could be broken up into powder. This forms the basis of all today's chocolate making, either for chocolate bars or for drinking.
This is proper drinking chocolate, though can also be used for baking. That's why it's just called cocoa. It's very flexible.
It's a mild chocolate drink with a lot of character. There's no sugar or other ingredients, so it can be a little bitter on its own for some tastes. We like to add a spoon of sugar per mug.
Good stuff.
Date: Feb 2021 Score: 7 1/2
Hot Chocolate taste tests appear to be very popular. It seems that every magazine and newspaper has done one! I've got a great idea for a feature, chief - how about a hot chocolate taste test?
Anyway, here's a random selection:
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| BBC: Best Hot Chocolate Test Test |
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| Independent: 10 Best Hot Chocolates |
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| Mirror: Best Hot Chocolate Brands |
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| Recommended Buys: Best Instant Hot Chocolate |
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| Good Housekeeping: Hot Chocolate Does it Have to Be Cadbury? |
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I was expecting something a bit more from one of Britain's most popular hot chocolates. But then, Cadbury's became popular in the 1800s for using more milk in their chocolate than other brands, so they were always about the low cost popularity rather than the quality (milk is cheaper than chocolate). Cadbury's has always been about making products that are easy to consume and have the widest appeal - that is, the products that have the least character, or are the blandest. In this case, it's about sweetness. Sugar is cheaper than chocolate - it bulks out the product, and makes it widely appealing. All chocolate seems to have some amount of sugar in it. By itself chocolate is quite bitter and intense. Milk and sugar are what make it palatable. And some like it darker (more chocolate, less milk and sugar) than others. I'm fairly flexible, though tend to have a preference for a balanced chocolate, moderately sweet, with some milk, not too dark. This hot chocolate is very sweet. So sweet it's like drinking sugared water with some chocolate flavouring. That's not balanced. It's way too much sugar. Yes, there is some chocolate flavour, but it's in the background.
Cadbury's is something of a British institution - Creme Eggs, Roses, Dairy Milk, Bournville Plain, and of course the Hot Chocolate. Everyone in Britain has been brought up on Cadbury's chocolates, and will be familiar with them; and most people are aware of the Bournville village, which Cadbury's had built for the factory workers, as was standard in Victorian times, though forbade alcohol to be sold anywhere in the village. Cadbury's is now owned by the American company Mondelez, which was split off from the Kraft company, famous for its processed cheese slices. However, the Bournville chocolate factory is still there, and the inhabitants of the Bournville village are still mostly workers at the factory. Despite the names "garden" and "model" village, only the managers lived in the mock Tudor houses usually shown in pictures, the workers lived in modest square boxes.
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| Typical Bournville workers houses |
Oooh. We like this. Proper hot chocolate that you make with milk. It's hardly less instant than making it with hot water. With instant hot chocolate you put water in the kettle, warm it up then pour it on the powder and stir. With proper hot chocolate you put milk in a jug, warm it up in the microwave then pour it on the powder and stir. Takes the same amount of time. The only downside is cleaning up the jug afterwards.
With coffee, beer and wine I prefer my drinks to be unadulterated - that is I don't like additional flavourings to be added. Coffee beans have a distinctive flavour from their country of origin, from a region in that country, from their altitude in that region, etc. Adding flavourings conceals the singular character and flavour of the individual coffee bean. Similar with wine. And with beer, there are so many wonderful flavours, both subtle and obvious that can be derived from the basic ingredients of kilned malts, yeast, local water, and hops that adding flavourings (like chocolate) seems totally absurd and misguided. However, perhaps because I've not yet come to a full understanding of the nature of the chocolate bean and the making of chocolate, I have never had a problem with flavourings being added to chocolate. Indeed, I like the combination of flavours with chocolate - chilli, nuts, fruit, or - as here - salted caramel. Chocolate seems to invite added flavours. Yes, it can be consumed on its own, and can be quite delightful, but it really takes off when mixed with other ingredients.
This salted caramel addition really works for me. It doesn't counterpoint the chocolate, more it blends with and enhances it.
The main ingredient is sugar with 36% cocoa. Gives it enough chocolate flavour, and when made with milk, it is rich, silky and indulgent.
Date: Feb 2021 Score: 8
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| Lidl Tea & Coffee |
95p for 400g from our local Lidl. That's cheap. You need 4-5 heaped teaspoons, and even then it tastes watery. There is a smoothness about it that is attractive, and a vague milky, sort of Galaxy, chocolate flavour. I mean, it's not bereft of chocolate, despite the low price and low cocoa content (12% of fat reduced cocoa), so for the price is sort of acceptable.
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| Lots of whey powder in the ingredients |
We tried it as per the instructions, though what we have found with most instant hot chocolates is that they are better made with milk rather than water (more body and smoothness and indulgence) or by adding cocoa powder (more chocolate flavour, bitterness - depending on the cocoa powder added, and character) or a mix of both. Sometimes, just to make it easy ("instant") I turn on the kettle, scoop in three spoonfuls of some instant chocolate (whatever brand is handy - the cheaper the better), and a generous spoonful of cocoa powder (adjust according to personal taste and experience and brand), then pour on the very hot water, stir, then add in some cold milk, and then perhaps a squirt of aerosol cream, topped with some chocolate sprinkles. Wonderful. If you're going to warm up the milk, you might as well make a proper hot chocolate - though even then a spoonful of instant chocolate can add to the richness of the finished chocolate.
Anyway. This is not a great instant hot chocolate. Certainly not something to drink as per the instructions. But at the price can be used to bolster and add smoothness to a proper hot chocolate, or as the base for an instant hot chocolate with some cocoa powder added.
Date: Feb 2021 Score: 3 1/2
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| Lidl Tea & Coffee |
Very old bag of chocolate brought back from Amsterdam last century! Bought in the famous Geels & Co coffee shop. Been hidden away at the back of the cupboard. My gosh, we've moved house twice since we bought this! I made it with milk at boiling point in the microwave, stirring and reheating, and then adding sugar to taste. Great stuff. Proper chocolate taste. Just the right sweetness (of course - by adding in your own sugar you can adjust the amount to your own taste). This was very satisfying. Good body. Good texture. Great taste. Worth the minimal extra effort.
Date: Jan 2021 Score: 8
This is an instant hot chocolate to wish you add hot milk. It already contains dried milk as with other instant hot chocolates, but it suggests only two spoonfuls of powder as opposed to the four which the regular instants ask for. We've had this in the cupboard for a while now, and I'm not sure it's sold anymore - I think it may have a new name - Belgian Choc Mint.
Using milk gives the drink a fuller and more silky mouthfeel. I sometimes use milk instead of water on other instant choc drinks, and it does work. I tried adding some creme fraiche the other day to a Lidl hot chocolate, and while it did add creamy body, it also brought in a sour note which didn't quite work. I think cream would work, but not creme fraiche.
This is an attractive and appealing hot choc - a little sweet for my taste, and not quite enough chocolate, but it is pleasant and drinkable with an attractive mint flavour to freshen it up.
Date: Jan 2021 Score: 6
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| Twinings |
Not an instant hot chocolate. This one you add hot milk to it rather than hot water, but other than that it's the same thing. You don't need to cook it, just pour on the hot milk and stir.
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| Info and instructions |
There's not a lot of difference between this and regular instant hot chocolates. That it is single estate chocolate appears to be fairly meaningless as the cocoa powder is half sugar anyway, and will then be swamped in the milk. The character of the chocolate bean is likely to get lost under all that. We like it, but it is perhaps less silky and indulgent than the instants - perhaps due to the lack of dried milk in the ingredients.
We tried it with some creme fraiche, and while that added body and silk, it was the wrong sort of cream, because it also added a sour note which didn't sit well with us.
Date: Jan 2021 Score: 6
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This is a pleasant hot chocolate. Easy drinking with a pleasant milky chocolate taste. We like it a little more than last time. And it's in a new recyclable/reusable tin.
Date: Nov 2022 Score: 7
